Page 86 of Home Is Where You Are

“Is this your way of getting me to open up?” I joked.

“Maybe,” he replied, kissing the top of my head.

“How do we decide who goes first?”

“You go first since it was my idea.”

I mulled over in my head what I could possibly ask him that I didn’t already know, but something that would keep the game fun and light, not heavy and draining.

“What’s one item you can’t live without?”

“That’s a tough one. Only because I never really took stock in materialistic items. I couldn’t when we moved around so much, often leaving a lot of our possessions behind. I’d have to say my wallet.”

“Why?” Most things in a wallet could be replaced, and it was an odd thing to say.

“Nah uh. You don’t get two questions in a row. It’s my turn,” he said with a laugh.

He got me there.

“What’s your first question?” Nervously, I pulled my lip between my teeth as I waited for him to ask his first question.

“What was your ideal Friday night at college?”

I was shocked that he didn’t pick a harder question.

“Enjoyin’ pizza under a fluffy blanket while watchin’ a movie.”

“Interesting. Your turn, beautiful,” he replied as he rubbed his fingertips up and down my arm.

“Why’s that interesting?”

“Is that your question?” He laughed.

“Uh, no. Can we make a rule that we have to explain our responses or somethin’? Getting more information out of you is like pullin’ teeth?” I said with a laugh.

“Not how this works, butterfly. What’s your question?”

I didn’t even know what else to ask. I mulled it over for a moment before I finally thought of something.

“Why’d you keep that letter?” I hated bringing up something heavy, but I couldn’t understand why he’d want the constant reminder of the pain I caused.

He swallowed hard before he responded.

“It was a part of you, a part of our story.” I frowned at his admission. So much pain was laced in his voice as I held my breath and waited for him to elaborate. Only he didn’t. He moved on to the next question.

“What’s your favorite board game?”

I took his innocent, carefree question as a hint that he wanted to keep the mood light.

“That would be Clue.” I laughed at the memory of me and my brothers playing as kids and the three of them getting mad that I’d always beat them.

He was too quick to ask questions. It didn’t give me a chance to think of my next one.

“Night owl or early bird?”

“I’m definitely a morning person,” he said, and I could feel the smile that graced his lips at the back of my head.

“Nope. That’s a deal breaker,” I joked. I hated getting up so early in the morning. You’d think I’d be a morning person with having to get up at the crack of dawn on the weekends to help out on the ranch, but I’d sleep in if I could.